I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e :

Volume XII, Edition 1 January 1, 2012

GATEKEEPER NEWSLETTER

Lou Trammell, Chair

http://www.dem.azdema.gov/ Janice K. Brewer, Governor http://www.governor.state.az.us/

Mark Howard, Executive Director

http://www.azserc.org

Arizona Emergency Response Commission 5636 East McDowell Road

Phoenix, Arizona 85008-3495

EPA Releases For-merly Confidential Chemical Information

2

Texas Oil Company Sentenced to Pay $12 Million for Clean Air Act Violations and Obstruction Crimes in Louisiana

4

Alcohol spills into lake at Heaven Hill distillery

6

Global Tragedy Fore-shadows Domestic Hazmat Needs

8

San Luis Obispo conceals toxic waste release

10

OSHA Issues New National Emphasis Program for Chemical

12

Upcoming Events 14

Hazardous waste hauler pleads guilty: of Transportation permits for about 20 of his company’s trucks, said a Niagara County assistant district attorney. A state police investigator said each “overweight permit” costs $750 a year and allows the truck to carry more than the nominal limit of 80,000 pounds of haz-ardous waste. The hauler’s trucks used the phony permits to make 264 documented trips to the CWM Chemical Services landfill in Porter between Au-gust 2010 and June 2011, ac-cording to a state environmental

investigator. Officials said the trucks hauled a variety of haz-ardous materials from all over the Northeastern United States to CWM, which is the only licensed hazardous waste dis-posal site in the Northeast. Sentencing will take place in March. Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/courts/article671356.ece

Buffalo News – (New York) Hazardous waste hauler pleads guilty. A Buffalo, New York hazardous waste hauler could be sent to prison for up to 14 years after pleading guilty December 13 in Niagara and Erie counties to using forged weight permits on his trucks. The owner of Pierce Trucking pleaded guilty in each county to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. The maximum prison sentence is 7 years in each county. The hauler admitted to forging New York Department

CAMEO Companion is now available for printing please contact: State of Arizona Department of Corrections

Dirk Johnson, Account Manager 3107 W. Cambridge Avenue

Phoenix, AZ 85009 602-272-7600 Ext. 207

Toll Free: 800-992-1738 Fax: 602-272-1007 Cell: 602-388-7230

djohnso1@azcorrections.gov

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P a g e 2 G A T E K E E P E R EPA Corner EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information: As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to enhance the US EPA’s chemi-cal management program and increase transparency, the agency is making available to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information (CBI). The move is part of EPA’s plan to make public the chemicals that are not entitled to CBI status. Re-leasing the data will expand the public’s access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufac-tured and processed in the US. Newly available information can be found using EPA’s Chemical Data Access Tool. “EPA is increasing the avail-ability of critical health and safety studies on chemicals

that children and families are exposed to every day. We are making important progress in making this information pub-lic and giving the American public easy access to it,” said Steve Owens, assistant ad-ministrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pol-lution Prevention. “Over the next year, we expect to re-view several thousand addi-tional studies on industrial chemicals and make many of these more accessible to the public.” Since 2009, 577 formerly confidential chemical identi-ties are no longer confidential and more than 1,000 health and safety studies are now accessible to the public that were previously unavailable or only available in limited

circumstances. In 2010, EPA issued new guidance outlining the agency’s plans to deny confidentiality claims for chemical identi-ties in health and safety studies under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that are deter-mined to not be entitled to CBI status. EPA has been reviewing CBI claims in new and existing TSCA filings containing health and safety studies. Consistent with the guid-ance, the agency will request that the submitter voluntar-ily relinquish the CBI claims and make the newly avail-able studies available to the public. EPA also challenged the chemical industry to make available information

that was previously classi-fied as CBI. To date, more than 35 companies have agreed to review previ-ously submitted filings containing health and safety studies and deter-mine if any CBI claims may no longer be neces-sary. The newly available information can be found under a new “declassified tab” using the Chemical Data Access Tool, launched in December 2010 to assist the public in retrieving chemical health and safety information sub-mitted to EPA under TSCA. For additional information, go to http://www.epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/transparency.html.

Eighth Annual

April 2-3, 2012 Chapparal Suites Resort 5001 N. Scottsdale Road Scottsdale, Arizona

Join EPA, AHMP and AZSERC for a 2-day conference for all Envi-ronmental, Health, Safety and Emergency Management Professionals! Featuring: Prominent Presentors, Keynote Speakers, Local & National Regula-tory Agencies, Great Networking with Hundreds of your Environ-mental and Emergency Management Colleagues. Special Course Offering: OSHA 8 Hour HAZWOPER & RCRA Update Register Early at 2011 Prices! Early Registration Deadline: December 31, 2011 For more information please visit: www.epaz.org www.thunderbirdchmm.org

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P a g e 3 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1

California Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Illegally Storing Toxic and Explosive Hazardous Waste in His Backyard: WASHINGTON – Edward Wyman, 64, from Reseda, Calif. has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for illegally storing toxic and explosive haz-ardous wastes in his backyard, materials that posed an immi-nent danger to nearby residents. The sentence is the longest handed down by a California federal judge in a hazardous waste case. “Illegally storing toxic and ex-plosive hazardous wastes is a crime and in this case a very dangerous one," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today's sentence shows that there are consequences to break-ing the law and putting the pub-lic at risk." "Today's sentence demonstrates the serious nature of federal environmental crimes," accord-

ing to United States Attor-ney André Birotte Jr. "Federal environmental regulations exist to protect both public safety and the environment. The Depart-ment of Justice is commit-ted to protecting the envi-ronment and to prosecuting persons who threaten the community through their illegal actions." Wyman was convicted of the felony environmental crime on April 5, 2011, by a federal jury following a five-day trial. In addition to convicting Wyman of vio-lating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the jury made a special finding that the defendant’s conduct know-ingly placed another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily in-jury.

Wyman was also ordered to pay $800,000 to the United States Environmental Pro-tection Agency’s Region 9 Emergency Response Office for costs associated with a 47-day clean-up. During the clean-up, EPA contractors were forced to call out the Los Angeles Police Depart-ment Bomb and Arson Squad seven times to deal with possible explosives mixed into the burned de-bris. Wyman was charged in June 2009, after firefighters re-sponded to a report of a fire and explosions at Wyman’s residence. Because of the ammunition that was being “cooked off” in the fire, firefighters had to wear bul-let proof vests. Investigators at the scene discovered a large cache of toxic materi-

als, including thousands of rounds of corroded ammuni-tion, highly reactive lead-contaminated waste from shooting ranges, hundreds of pounds of decades-old gun-powder and military M6 can-non powder, and industrial solvents that contained 1,1,1‑trichloroethane and tetrachloroethylene, two po-tent chemicals that are listed as hazardous substances un-der federal law. Wyman did not have a permit to store any of the materials. The case was investigated by the United States Environ-mental Protection Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. More information on EPA’s criminal enforcement pro-gram: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/index.html

U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency – (Texas) Fertil-izer company agrees to pay $1.8 million penalty to re-solve hazardous waste viola-tions. The U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) December 7 an-nounced Agrifos, a former phosphoric acid and phos-phate fertilizer producer in Pasadena, Texas, agreed to pay a $1.8 million penalty and conduct an environmental project to resolve alleged vio-

lations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Clean Air Act. Violations include process-ing and disposing of haz-ardous wastewater without a permit, and improper routing of effluent from a scrubber through a cooling tower. The settlement is designed to reduce releases of hazardous wastewater into waterways, including the Houston Ship Channel. Agrifos produces sulfuric

acid and ammonium sulfate fertilizers. Under the agree-ment, Agrifos will spend $600,000 to construct a stormwater collection and containment barrier around its fertilizer production unit to eliminate or minimize impact on the environment. The structure will contain all spills and leaks from the fertilizer production unit, and collect contaminated stormwater run-off from wet weather events for reuse in the production

Fertilizer company agrees to pay $1.8 million penalty to resolve hazardous waste violations:

process. Based on the average rainfall at the facility, the barrier is expected to capture more than 1 million gallons of contaminated stormwater annually for reuse. This is the fifth enforcement action re-lated to the Agrifos site in the last 3 years. Source: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/6438b5a186d50af48525795f006d00db?OpenDocument

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P a g e 4 G A T E K E E P E R

Sentence is the largest ever crimi-nal fine in Louisiana for air pol-lution WASHINGTON — Pelican Refining Company LLC, was sentenced to pay $12 million for felony violations of the Clean Air Act and to obstruction of justice charges in federal court in Lafay-ette, La. announced Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s Office of Enforce-ment and Compliance Assurance, and Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general of the Environ-ment and Natural Resources Divi-sion of the Department of Justice. “Facilities have a responsibility to protect their employees and local residents by following our na-tion’s environmental laws,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant adminis-trator for EPA’s Office of En-forcement and Compliance As-surance. "Corporations that choose to cut corners and ignore these critical safeguards will face significant consequences.” “This corporation operated with-out even the most basic require-ments of an environmental com-pliance plan and endangered the public and its own employees by implementing unsafe practices in violation of its permit and report-ing requirements,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney gen-eral for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “Today's plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will continue to vig-orously prosecute those who vio-late environmental and workplace safety laws.” Pelican was sentenced to pay a $12 million penalty, which in-cludes a $10 million criminal fine and $2 million in community service payments that will go toward various environmental

projects in Louisiana, includ-ing air pollution monitoring. The criminal fine is the larg-est ever in Louisiana for violations of the Clean Air Act. Pelican is also prohib-ited from future operations unless it implements an envi-ronmental compliance plan, which includes independent quarterly audits by an out-side firm and oversight by a court-appointed monitor. In a joint factual statement filed in court, Pelican, head-quartered in Houston, Texas, admitted that the company had knowingly committed criminal violations of its operating permit at the refin-ery located in Lake Charles, La. The violations were dis-covered during a March 2006 inspection by the Lou-isiana Department of Envi-ronmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA), which identified numerous unsafe operating conditions. Pelican also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for submitting materially false deviation reports to LDEQ, the agency that administers the federal Clean Air Act in Louisiana. Pelican admitted to the fol-lowing: • Pelican had no company budget, no environmental department and no environ-mental manager; • In order to comply with a permit issued under the Clean Air Act, the refinery was required to use certain key pollution prevention equipment, but that equip-ment was either not function-ing, poorly maintained, im-properly installed, improp-

erly placed into service and/or improperly calibrated; • It was a routine practice for over a year to use an emer-gency flare gun to re-light the flare tower at the refinery designed to burn off toxic gasses and provide for the safe combustion of potentially explosive chemicals; because the pilot light was not func-tioning properly, employees would take turns trying to shoot the flare gun to relight the explosive gasses; • Sour crude oil was stored in a tank that was not properly placed into service and re-mained in the tank after the roof sank; • A caustic scrubber designed to remove hydrogen sulfide from emissions was bypassed; • A continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) designed to measure the hy-drogen sulfide levels in refin-ery emissions was not work-ing properly, and • Pelican provided false infor-mation to the State of Louisi-ana and the State of Texas concerning the laboratory testing of asphalt. Byron Hamilton, the Pelican vice-president who oversaw operations at the Lake Charles refinery since 2005 from an office in Houston, Texas pleaded guilty on July 6, 2011, to negligently plac-ing persons in imminent dan-ger of death and serious bod-ily injury as a result of negli-gent releases at the refinery. Hamilton faces up to one year in prison and a $200,000 fine for each of the two Clean Air Act counts. On Oct. 31, 2011, Pelican’s former asphalt fa-cilities manager, Mike Le-

Texas Oil Company Sentenced to Pay $12 Million for Clean Air Act Violations and Obstruction Crimes in Louisiana:

Bleu, also pleaded guilty to a negligent endangerment charge under the Clean Air Act. The government’s investiga-tion of the Pelican Refinery continues. Under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, crime victims are afforded certain statutory rights, including the opportunity to attend all public hearings and provide input to the prosecution. Any person adversely impacted is encour-aged to learn more about the case and the Crime Victims’ Rights Act or contact the Vic-tim Witness Coordinator for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Louisiana. The criminal investigation is being conducted by the EPA Criminal Investigation Divi-sion in Baton Rouge and the Louisiana State Police, with assistance from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The case is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley, Richard A. Udell, Senior Trial Attorney of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Divi-sion of the U.S. Department of Justice, Trial Attorney Christo-pher Hale with the Environ-mental Crimes Section. More information on EPA’s criminal enforcement program: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/index.html Read the joint factual state-ment: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/investigations/pelican-jfs-10-21-11.pdf Photos: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/investigations/pelican-exhibits.pdf

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Focused effort on high-impact cases leads to increases in pol-lution reduced and invest-ments in pollution controls WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its an-nual enforcement and compli-ance results. EPA's enforcement and compliance program en-forces environmental laws that protect our nation's air, land and water by taking action to cut illegal pollution and protect people's health and communi-ties. In fiscal year Fiscal Year 2011, EPA enforcement actions led to more than 1.8 billion pounds in pollution reduced, an estimated $19 billion in required pollution controls and approxi-mately $168 million in civil penalties. "Our annual results reflect the fact that a strong and effective enforcement program is good for responsible businesses, pub-lic health and communities across the country," said Cyn-thia Giles, assistant administra-

tor for EPA's Office of En-forcement and Compliance Assurance. "As we con-tinue our focus on the most se-

rious pollution problems, we expect to see better en-vironmental performance and greater public health benefits." In FY 2011, EPA enforce-ment resulted in commit-ments to: � Install pollution controls for a cleaner tomorrow: $19 billion invested to improve environmental performance and compliance efforts, a record year, including $3 billion dollars to clean up hazardous waste in commu-nities � Protect people's health

from dangerous pollution: 1.8 billion pounds of harmful air, water, and chemical pollution reduced and 3.6 billion pounds of hazardous waste reduced, properly disposed of or treated � Deter illegal pollution through civil penalties: $168 million in civil penalties as-sessed ($152 million in fed-eral penalties and $16 million in actions taken jointly by EPA and state and local gov-ernments) � Fight environmental crime: $35 million in fines and restitution, $2 million in court ordered environmental projects and 89.5 years of incarceration to deter future violations and hold violators accountable � Invest additional resources in affected communities: $25 million committed by compa-nies through enforcement

EPA Annual Enforcement Results Highlights Commitment to Address Largest Pollution Problems with Greatest Community Impact:

settlements to conduct sup-plemental environmental projects in communities Cases under EPA's national enforcement initiatives, which focus enforcement and compliance resources and expertise on serious pollution problems affect-ing communities, produced the majority of commit-ments to install pollution controls and led to settling important cases, including the settlement with the Tennessee Valley Author-ity, which will lead to up to $27 billion in annual health benefits and provide $350 million for environmental projects to benefit commu-nities. More information on EPA's FY 2011 enforcement and compliance results: http://epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/endofyear/eoy2011 /index.html

P a g e 5 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1

TRANSCAER® (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) is a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities prepare for and respond to a possible hazardous material transportation incident. TRAN-SCAER® members consist of volunteer representatives from the chemical manufacturing, transportation, distributor, and emer-gency response industries, as well as the government. Visit: http://www.transcaer.com/state.aspx for more information.

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P a g e 6 G A T E K E E P E R

LEPC Corner

Louisville Courier-Journal – (Kentucky) Alcohol spills into lake at Heaven Hill distillery. Nearly 6,400 gallons of ethyl alcohol spilled from the back of a Heaven Hill distillery building December 3, trig-gering a hazardous-materials response from the Bardstown, Kentucky, Fire De-partment and state and federal environ-mental regulators. A temporary dike helped capture some of the 180-proof al-cohol, but a large amount spilled down a creek and into a lake at the rear of the

building, the Bardstown fire chief said. The spill occurred after a tanker delivered the alcohol to the distillery in Nelson County. A shutoff valve between a large tank and a smaller tank was left open, allowing the liquid to flow into the smaller tank, which then over-flowed into a containment area. But a separate valve — opened recently to release excess rain-water — had also been left open.

That allowed the alcohol to flow across a gravel parking lot and into the creek and lake. Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20111204/NEWS01/312040053/Alcohol-spills-into-lake-at-Heaven-Hill-distillery?odys-sey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

Alcohol spills into lake at Heaven Hill distillery :

Kansas City infoZine – (Missouri) Hazardous waste violations at salvage goods facility in Grandview, Mis-souri. Eldo W.R.M.S., Inc., a commercial goods salvage wholesale and retail business, agreed to pay a $23,900 civil penalty to the United States to settle hazardous waste viola-tions at its facility in Grand-view, Missouri. According to an

administrative consent agreement filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an EPA representative conducted an inspection at the Grandview facility in February 2010 and noted several violations of the Resource Conserva-tion and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates hazardous waste. Those

violations included failure to perform hazardous waste de-terminations on multiple waste streams, storing hazard-ous wastes without a RCRA permit, and offering hazard-ous waste for transport with-out a hazardous waste mani-fest. More specifically, the violations involved the stor-age of at least seven types of waste pharmaceuticals, and

Hazardous waste violations at salvage goods facility in Grandview, Missouri:

several containers of paint, adhesives, ink, and printing chemicals. The facility was storing about 17,750 pounds of hazardous wastes, not including the waste pharmaceuticals. Source: http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/49847/

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P a g e 7 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1

Two people who were exposed to an anhydrous ammonia ex-plosion are currently being treated in a Phoenix hospital. They were severely injured while working at a vegetable packing shed Friday afternoon. According to the Yuma Fire Department, the incident oc-curred at about 3:50 p.m. at Yuma Express Cooling, 4139 E Gila Ridge Road. Joel Faz, who was driving in the area, witnessed the explosion unfold. “There was a semitruck in front of me and a car right in front of me,” he said. “The semi- truck made a turn, and as we started to go again, there was a huge explosion.” According to Faz, who had his window open, there was a boom so deafening “it hurt my left ear. I was right there in the street right at the intersection where it happened.” Faz saw two men try to escape the explosion. “They were in between two tanks,” he said. “Right when it happened, one guy came run-ning out first, and he was about ten feet in front of the shock wave. The guy behind him was engulfed in that.” The shock wave “literally picked him up,” Faz said. “It

looked like he was off the ground about two or three feet for about five or six feet, until he finally hit the ground running again. It was an unbelievable sight. It just blew me away.” The plume of ammonia smoke was about 45 feet high, Faz noted, adding that people who were evacuat-ing a nearby building ran right into it when they ex-ited. “The alarms started going off immediately, and they were going out all the exits, and they didn't know what they were getting into. The wind carried it toward the southeast where everybody was evacuating. They were running into the plume of ammonia. Once they got in the cloud, they still had to try and get away.” The first YFD units to ar-rive on scene found multi-ple victims with varied degrees of ammonia expo-sure. The most severe ex-posure victim was trans-ported immediately to Yuma Regional Medical Center by a YFD Rescue truck. Exposure to anhydrous ammonia is extremely dan-gerous, and large doses can be fatal.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Dis-ease Registry, ammonia is highly irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract, and can cause swelling and nar-rowing of the throat and bronchi, coughing, and an accumulation of fluid in the lungs. Prolonged skin contact can cause pain and corrosive injury. Exposure to concen-trated vapor or solution can cause pain, inflammation, blisters, necrosis and deep penetrating burns, especially on moist skin areas. Skin contact with compressed, liquid ammonia, which is stored at –28ºF, causes frostbite injury and may also result in severe burns with deep ulcerations. After the first victim was transported to YRMC, YFD personnel, working in coop-eration with Rural Metro ambulance personnel, evalu-ated patients and readied them for transport. Eleven additional patients were transported to YRMC. Two, including the first victim transported by YFD, were flown out to medical facili-ties in Phoenix. Three YFD and seven Rural Metro personnel were also decontaminated and evalu-ated for exposure to ammo-nia.

Ammonia blast injures 12: Yuma Police Department personnel blocked off traffic on Gila Ridge Road between Avenue 3E and Araby Road during the incident to facili-tate access and movement of emergency vehicles. Traffic remained blocked for ap-proximately two hours. The street was reopened at about 6 p.m. As emergency medical opera-tions were underway, YFD hazardous materials techni-cians and Yuma Express Cooling employees con-firmed the leak had been stopped and took additional actions to stabilize the situa-tion. The leak was believed to have been caused by a failure of a connection to a condens-ing coil on a cooling tower, YFD said. The incident is under investi-gation. Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.

Read more: http://www.yumasun.com/articles/ammonia-74914-yfd-right.html#ixzz1frGpgbox

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P a g e 8 G A T E K E E P E R

respond to day-to-day events, in addition to the possibility of a nefarious act.

“They also assist in investigative efforts where hazardous materi-als and WMDs are involved,” he said.

The team consists of 30 person-nel, which includes full- and part-time employees as well as fire inspectors and investigators who are cross-trained and can be leveraged as force multiplies. The operating budget is around $2.2 million annually is allocated to run the team, which includes personnel and equipment costs.

Several pieces of equipment are used to respond to events, in-cluding a mobile hazmat re-sponse command post, dubbed Hazmat 1. It holds the advanced detection technologies and iden-tifications, Level A chemical response protective clothing and encrypted communications. As a complement, the marshal’s office also has Hazmat 2, a tender used to deliver foam to industrial chemical incidents. They also have a hazmat response boat since they are located in upper Galveston Bay, Texas, Royall said.

While Royall is more than proud of Harris County’s capabilities, it is only one of the many hats he and his personnel are asked to wear. For example, the office also operates the Harris County Fire Training Academy and fire investigations, such as arson. “I am in a unique situation be-cause I have arson plus WMD response technicians and I am able to use the law-enforcement part of my part of command for environmental crime issues,” he said. “We are able to do a lot of things within one agency.”

events,” Royall said.

Nearly five years later — and right in Royall’s own backyard — an explosion and ensuing fire occurred at the Phillips Petro-leum Houston Chemical Com-plex, resulting in 23 known dead and one missing. In addition, more than 100 people were in-jured, and metal and concrete debris was found as far as six miles away following the explo-sion, the U.S. Fire Administra-tion reported.

It was the first of several national events that lead to public support for the mitigation and response to major incidents. And it wasn’t chemical spills alone — the new threat of terrorism further em-phasized the need for a trained force. After the first attempted bombing of the World Trade Center in 1992, followed by Oklahoma City Bombing, and Tokyo sarin-gas attack in 1995, it was clear that the fire service would need to be able to respond to any chemical, biological, ra-diological and nuclear (CBRN) disasters, Royall said.

“It is the single most demanding responsibility that has been put on the fire service since EMS,” he said.

Now, as hazmat chief for Harris County, Royall ensures the mar-shal’s office can response to CBRN events, especially in the Port of Houston — home to 29 of the world’s largest energy producers. The in-house Emer-gency Operations Branch, also known as the hazmat group, is responsible for planning, mitigat-ing and recovering from emer-gencies and disasters, whether natural, accidental or deliberate. The branch is staffed by hazmat technicians that support local fire and law enforcement in hazard-ous spills and releases, and per-form safety inspections of facili-ties that store, sell or use hazard-ous materials. The team can

By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com )

Fire departments’ duties have changed dramatically since Robert Royall began his career at the Hous-ton Fire Department in 1973. What started as a focus on firefighting has evolved into an all-hazards occupa-tion. Now, instead of stomping out residential fires, Royal now oversees hazmat operations for the Harris County (Texas) Fire Marshal’s office — which protects one of the busiest petrochemical ports in the world as well as 4 million residents.

Royall’s hazmat career started early on when he was a member of Hous-ton's Hazmat Response Team, one of the oldest in the nation after the Jack-sonville (Fla.) Fire Department’s. In 1978, Houston’s then-Fire Chief V.E. Rogers saw a presentation about Jacksonville’s recently formed hazmat team and thought that if any-one needed such resources, it was Houston, because the city was the petrochemical capital of the world. Rogers tasked District Chief Max H. McRae to organize the team and develop the program.

In 1981, Royall was promoted and given command of a southeast fire station, which also included the in-dustrial corridor of the Houston Ship Channel, part of the Port of Houston, where many energy and petrochemi-cal companies were located. The department’s move foreshadowed events that would show the need for emergency hazmat teams.

In December 1984, a pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal leaked its contents and exposed hun-dreds of thousands of people to tox-ins. Estimates vary on the death toll, but a government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 inju-ries including 38,478 temporary par-tial and approximately 3,900 severe and permanently disabling injuries.

“This incident brought to the fore-front the need for an organized re-sponse to these specialized chemical

Global Tragedy Foreshadows Domestic Hazmat Needs:

“This incident brought to the forefront the need for an organized

response to these

specialized chemical

events,” Royall said.

mailto:maryrose.roberts@penton.com�

P a g e 9 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1

Alaska Dispatch – (Alaska) Alaska pipeline operator to pay $600,000 in federal fines. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. will pay $600,000 in fines stemming from several enforcement cases against the operator of the trans-Alaska oil pipe-line. The civil fines are part of a settle-ment with the Transportation Depart-ment’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The federal agency had opened enforcement cases against Alyeska for 2006, 2007,

2008, and 2009. Those cases will be set-tled and Alyeska has agreed to drop a lawsuit against the PHMSA, Petroleum News reports. In one case, Petroleum News wrote, “PHMSA alleged Alyeska committed two violations of pipeline safety regulations. First, it was too slow to obtain a vendor’s full report on a 2004 pig run to test for corrosion or other haz-ards on the pipeline, the agency said. Second, Alyeska failed to promptly re-pair a damaged segment of buried pipe

near mile 546, PHMSA said.” Alyeska has faced criticism off and on through the dec-ades over its maintenance and operations of the pipeline, which carries more than 13 percent of U.S. domestic oil production. The trans-Alaska oil pipeline runs 800 miles from Alaska’s North Slope oil fields to a tanker terminal in Valdez at Prince William Sound. Source: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-pipeline-operator-pay-600000-federal-fines

State ecology fines BNSF $3k for hazardous February spill at Chambers Bay in University Place; says responders were put in jeopardy: Tacoma News Tribune – (Washington) State ecology fines BNSF $3k for hazard-ous February spill at Cham-bers Bay in University Place; says responders were put in jeopardy. The Wash-ington Department of Ecol-ogy fined BNSF Railway $3,000 for spilling 150 gal-lons of liquid sodium hydrox-ide in a Pierce County derail-ment last February. On Febru-ary 26, 13 rail cars derailed near Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place. Four of the 15,000-gallon capacity derailed cars were fully loaded with 50 percent sodium hydroxide solution, the department said in a press

release December 1. Sodium hydroxide, which is also called lye or caustic soda, is a highly corrosive chemical, the depart-ment stated. The material is used in the production of pulp and paper, textiles, soaps and detergents, and is also used as a drain cleaner. Three of the cars landed on the Puget Sound shoreline, with one spilling 50 gallons of chemical on the beach. The department noted the spill area was washed by several tidal cycles before the offending car was removed after 4 days. On March 1, an-other 100 gallons of sodium hydroxide spilled when equip-ment operators lost control of a damaged rail car as it was being

removed. Along with the fine, the department billed BNSF $6,370 to reimburse the state for its costs in responding to the incident. The department noted a lack of coor-dination with emergency re-sponders that put crews in jeop-ardy. The company has been asked to submit a report describ-ing how the railway will better coordinate with incident respond-ers during the spill of hazardous materials. Source: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2011/12/01/state-ecology-fines-bnsf-3k-for-hazardous-february-spill-at-chambers-bay-in-university-place-says-responders-were-put-in-jeopardy/

Sodium hydroxide,

which is also called lye or

caustic soda, is a highly corrosive

chemical, the department

stated.

Alaska pipeline operator to pay $600,000 in federal fines:

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P a g e 1 0 G A T E K E E P E R

Roads closed due to acid spill: Eastern Arizona Courier – (Arizona) Roads closed due to acid spill. Several roads around Thatcher, Arizona were closed for hours the morning of December 5 after a Bulk Transportation (BT) tank trailer intermittently leaked sulfuric acid from the intersection of Highway 70 and Norton Road to the Free-port McMoRan Copper &

Gold Inc. Safford mine. The Graham County Sheriff's Office was alerted at about 7:57 a.m. Deputies closed Norton Road, parts of Reay Lane and Safford/Bryce Road as well as Freeport McMoRan Road. The BT ter-minal manager told a lieutenant the driver failed to seal the tanker's lid, and acid escaped every time the truck stopped or turned. A haz-mat team from

FMI joined a crew from BT and the Graham County Highway Department to spread soda ash on the acid to neutralize it. Roads were reopened at about 12:30 p.m. Source: http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2011/12/06/news/breaking_news/doc4ede57d7f1519983920824.txt

The BT terminal

manager told a lieutenant the

driver failed to seal the

tanker's lid, and acid

escaped every time the truck

stopped or turned.

By KAREN VELIE Eleven months after a San Luis Obispo city employee dumped toxic chemicals at a public fa-cility, city officials have still not reported the illegal discharge to state authorities as required by law. The failure to report the spill could leave the city with fines totaling more than $1 million. “I would hate to imagine the fines that could result from this mess,” Doug Dowdin, a city storm water enforcement offi-cial says in a Feb. 2 email to fellow employees. “I am sure that I don’t have to stress the potential liability.” In mid January 2011, an angry city employee told several sub-ordinates to pour out cans of acetones (solvents), varnish, epoxy, creosote, enamel paint and latex paint. The chemicals were dumped on an asphalt parking lot that abuts a grassy area. Paint and chemicals swirled together creating areas thick with paint and a lower

section that included open soil coated with acetones, varnishes and creosotes. Waste water collections supervisor Bud Nance had told the staffers to remove the contents of the hazard-ous waste storage shed at the city corporation yard on Prado Road and empty cans in the yard. “It is illegal to dispose of hazardous waste in the gar-bage, down storm drains, or onto the ground, according to the California’s Depart-ment of Resources, Recy-cling, and Recovery web-site. “Chemicals in illegally disposed hazardous waste can be released into the environment and contami-nate our air, water, and possibly the food we eat.” Banned substances include latex paints, oil based paints and solvents, accord-ing to the state’s website. Several of the chemicals poured out in the yard can

affect health especially if leached into the ground or water supply. Nance refused to answer questions about the spill, hanging up during an inter-view. Nance ordered the dumping because he was angry with the city, several employees including supervisors said. Nance’s supervisors had questioned him about his relationship with a female coworker. And, he was up-set because the city had in-vestigated and wrote up a friend, Ron Faria, for taking a city lawn mower, they said. City emails show fellow employees including Dave Hix, a San Luis Obispo wastewater division man-ager, chastising Nance for his actions. “Now look what you’ve done,” Hix said in a Feb. 2 email to Nance.

San Luis Obispo conceals toxic waste release: Nance said he thought the spill was “a bit blown out of proportion and this event did not need to bring out the Cal-vary and waste staff time,” in a Feb. 2 email. He rebuffed several requests by Dowden that he take hazardous waste training saying he “had no interest.” Dowden replied that the training was required because the chemicals had been dumped. To read the entire article go to: http://calcoastnews.com/2011/12/san-luis-obispo-conceals-toxic-waste-release/

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P a g e 1 1 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1 Industry Corner

Salem Today’s Sunbeam – (New Jersey) Under the set-tlement agreement, DuPont will pay $725,000 in penal-ties to state. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has reached an agreement with DuPont Co. that requires the firm to pay a fine of $725,000 and upgrade procedures for han-dling hazardous materials at its Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, the DEP an-nounced December 8. The agreement reached through an administrative consent order, stems from investigations of incidents between 2009 and the present of spills and han-

dling problems at the plant, its hazardous waste dis-posal landfill, drum and container storage areas, a rail siding, and its industrial wastewater treatment plant. A DuPont spokeswoman said many of the infractions at the 1,455-acre site on the Delaware River involved minor leaks and spills, or record keeping and labeling problems. The DEP said the consent order contains a compliance schedule re-quiring DuPont to: evaluate and improve, site-wide and area specific procedures relating to the storage, iden-tification and accumulation

of waste; provide a list of actions to be undertaken to prevent spills and dis-charges; remove waste from the wastewater holding tank; perform upgrades to the landfill; characterize, re-move and dispose all waste rail cars from the siding area and upgrade rail car man-agement. In 2006, DuPont agreed to upgrade equip-ment and pay a $105,000 fine as a result of a DEP investigation that logged more than 220 incidents of spills and discharges. Dis-charges occurred as a result of faulty or inoperable pumps, leaking valves and

Under the settlement agreement, DuPont will pay $725,000 in penalties to state:

gaskets, valves inadvertently left open, cracks in contain-ment structures, and accidents. The upgrades worked as in-tended, but problems started arising again in mid-2008, according to the DEP. The consent order addresses more than 60 violations resulting from subsequent DEP inspec-tions of the facility, according to the state agency. Source: http://www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2011/12/un-der_the_settlement_agreement.html

Governor's Tribal Community Outreach: Visit: http://azgovernor.gov/eop/TribalOutreach.asp for agency contact information.

Tribal Program Link:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/indian

Tribal Program Newsletter:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/indian/newslet.html

Tribal news:

http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/

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P a g e 1 2 G A T E K E E P E R

OSHA cited Odom Industries in Milford, Ohio, for 38 safety and health violations, including three willful viola-tions for allegedly amending the company’s OSHA 300 injury and illness logs by re-moving all recordable inju-ries. OSHA initiated an in-spection of the fabrication plant after receiving a com-plaint alleging that injured workers, who were unable to perform their normal jobs, were moved to other jobs to avoid recordable injuries on the OSHA 300 logs. Proposed fines total $90,760. “Employers who alter injury and illness logs, and fail to conduct required training, demonstrate a lack of com-mitment to workplace safety and health,” said Bill Wilkerson, director of OSHA’s Cincinnati Area Of-fice. “The injury and illness

rate computed by OSHA shows that the company had a rate above the na-tional average for a three-year period. OSHA is com-mitted to protecting work-ers, especially when em-ployers fail to do so.” Investigators determined the company intentionally amended OSHA 300 logs by removing all recordable injuries during the calendar years of 2008, 2009, and 2010. Using a medical ac-cess order, investigators found that the employer also failed to record other work-related injuries for the three calendar years. OSHA determined there were 14 work-related injuries in 2008, six in 2009, and seven in 2010 that should have been added to the logs. A willful health viola-tion was cited for each of

the three calendar years the logs were amended. A will-ful violation is one commit-ted with intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirement or plain indifference to em-ployee safety and health. Additionally, 16 serious safety violations were cited for failing to inspect and train employees in the use of personal protective gear, failing to conduct electrical safety training, the lack of fall protection, the lack of a lockout/tagout program for the energy sources of ma-chines, the lack of machine guarding and the misuse of metal ladders. Three serious health violations also were cited for failing to conduct annual audiograms for em-ployees exposed to noise hazards, failing to provide welding shields and screens,

Employer Cited for Altering Injury and Illness Logs: and failing to conduct hexava-lent chromium training. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a haz-ard about which the employer knew or should have known. Sixteen other-than-serious safety and health violations were cited, including failing to document inspections of crane hooks and chains, failing to establish a respiratory program including fit-testing, failing to provide medical evaluations and training, failing to conduct a hazard assessment for per-sonal protective equipment needs, and failing to inform employees about voluntary respirator use. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or seri-ous physical harm.

OSHA has issued a new Na-tional Emphasis Program (NEP) for chemical facilities to protect workers from catastrophic re-leases of highly hazardous chemicals. “Far too many workers are in-jured and killed in preventable incidents at chemical facilities around the country,” said Assis-tant Secretary of Labor for Oc-cupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “This pro-gram will enable OSHA inspec-tors to cover chemical facilities nationwide to ensure that all required measures are taken to protect workers.” The new NEP replaces OSHA’s

2009 pilot Chemical Facil-ity National Emphasis Pro-gram which covered several OSHA regions around the country. The program es-tablishes policies and pro-cedures for inspecting workplaces that are covered by OSHA’s process safety management (PSM) stan-dard. The program’s in-spection process includes detailed questions designed to gather facts related to PSM requirements and verification that employers’ written and implemented PSM programs are consis-tent. The intent of the NEP is to conduct focused in-

spections at facilities ran-domly selected from a list of worksites likely to have highly hazardous chemicals in quantities covered by the standard. OSHA implemented a multi-year pilot NEP for PSM-covered facilities in July 2009 in an effort to reduce releases of highly hazardous chemi-cals. “During our pilot Chemical NEP we found many of the same safety-related problems that were uncovered during our NEP for the refinery industry, which is also covered by the PSM stan-dard,” said Michaels. “As a

OSHA Issues New National Emphasis Program for Chemical Facilities:

result, we are expanding the enforcement program to a national level to in-crease awareness of these dangers so that employers will more effectively pre-vent the release of highly hazardous chemicals.” OSHA’s Safety and Health Topics Web page on Proc-ess Safety Management contains information on PSM for general industry and construction, guidance on how to develop a proc-ess hazard analysis, and OSHA requirements for preventing the release of hazardous chemicals.

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P a g e 1 3 V o l u m e X I I , E d i t i o n 1

Update: California compost facility to be shut down: By Shawn Wright | WRN reporter Community Recycling & Resource Recovery Inc. of Lamont, Calif., where two brothers died from appar-ent inhalation of noxious fumes, has been ordered to close on Dec. 15 after 18 years in operation.

The Kern County (Calif.) Board of Supervisors ordered the composting facility to shut down by revoking its operating permits during a Nov. 15 meeting. It also fined the company $2.33 million for land use violations.

The unanimous decision came five weeks after the brothers died from lethal doses of gases in a drainage tunnel at the composting facility.

"The bottom line is I just can´t be-lieve this company anymore," board Chairman Mike Maggard said during the meeting. "The very first comment this evening made by à Mr. [John] Richardson, vice president of the company, and the words he said in his first opening remarks were, ´We are fully cooperating with OSHA.´ à We have confirmation from OSHA that nothing but the contrary is going on."

Board members learned from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) that Community Recycling violated Cal-OSHA´s order that prohibited the company from sending workers into the drainage system five times from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15.

On Oct. 14, Cal-OSHA prohibited use of the tunnel where the brothers were overcome as it continued to investi-gate the facility. On Nov. 2, Cal-OSHA banned workers from coming within six feet of any drainage tunnel on the property.

In addition to the Cal-OSHA report, the board received a 27-page report from the county planning department that highlighted problems dating back to 2007. In January, Community Re-cycling was taking in plastic materials to recycle, the report stated, but it didn´t have the required permits to do

so. The report said Community Recy-cling was still taking in plastics in October.

The report also said that the company violated its permit conditions "both on the project site and on other prop-erties."

Mark Smith, an attorney for Commu-nity Recycing, said at the board meet-ing that county staff had confused violations of the operating permit with operations on land next to the composting facility.

He also said the board meeting was inadequately posted and that the fine and permit revocation appear to leave room for a legal fight.

Calls and emails sent to Smith re-questing further comment went unan-swered.

Sixteen-year-old Armando Ramirez, who was working under false papers that said he was 30, and his 22-year-old brother Eladio Ramirez were overcome by lethal gases inside the drainage pipe at Community Recy-cling on Oct. 12.

Initial autopsies last month were in-conclusive and additional toxicology and microscopic testing is being per-formed.